Series: We need to find joy in the journey!
Thesis of series: Joy needs to be experienced in the journey of life! But Joy, like any other attitude, can come and go. It is not guaranteed simply because we are born again believers because storms will blow in and out of our lives. We must put ourselves in the places where experiencing joy is a possibility. We need to go after and find joy in our journey of life even in times of grief, illness, financial crisis, hardship and even persecution.
Introduction:
Studying about joy in Scripture, looking at verses which speak of joy, helps build an understanding of how to put ourselves in places where it is possible to find and maintain an attitude of joy in our journey of life. We need to position ourselves in 2019 to seek after and find joy in the journey of life. God desires to help us find that joy!
• We can find Joy through laughter and humor.
• We can find joy in God’s Love.
• But we also can find joy in praise, worship and prayer to the Lord.
Summary of sermon 2: Find Joy in the Journey Through Praise pt. 2!
Thesis: Gods greatest desire is that we – you and I - would act like Him and live with Him. God placed His nature in us and as a believer His presence lives in us (Gen 2:8). He desires to interact with us through praise which encompasses prayer and worship as well. We can discover with the help of the Lord joy in the journey of life – even when we face illness, death, persecution, trials and hardship.
Tavian’s story recap! He found joy in prison and persecution for his faith and in the midst of it all he wrote 600 Worship songs and Hymns to the Lord.
We have been exploring finding Joy in life through Davidic Worship:
Characteristics of David’s style of praise/prayer and worship:
• Davidic prayer/praise and worship puts God in first place.
o Colossians 3:2: 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
• Davidic prayer/praise and worship flows from our hearts out of love for God – true prayer, praise and worship flows from a deep intimate relationship with the Lord.
o The Psalm’s which you have in the Bible where birthed from the hearts of the people as they worshipped before the Lord night and day in this Tabernacle.
o David wrote most of them as songs and prayers to the Lord!
o Davidic prayer/praise and worship is a conscious choice – no one can make you do it – you have to want to do it.
? Hebrews 13:15: 15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.
o Davidic prayer/praise and worship is an expression of our faith – our trust in the Lord.
? 2 Cor. 5:7: 7We live by faith, not by sight.
David is said in the Bible to be a man after God’s own heart! Ron Edmonson states this about our man David:
Acts 13:22 says, “After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.‘” The following words describe the heart of David as seen in his own writings: (All verses New International Version)
a. Humble – “Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.” Psalm 62:9
b. Reverent – “I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.” Psalm 18:3
c. Respectful – “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.” Psalm 31:9
d. Trusting – “The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1
e. Loving – “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” Psalm 18:1
f. Devoted – “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.” Psalm 4:7
g. Recognition – “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.” Psalm 9:1
h. Faithful – “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23:6
i. Obedient – “Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart.” Psalm 119:34
j. Repentant – “For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.” Psalm 25:11
i. David’s example is a great road map for how we are to live our life. He found joy in the journey of life through praise and worship to God! In good times, in bad times in times of battle and times of peace. His joy came from his connection to God through praise and worship and prayer. (Note: Ron Edmondson pastors Immanuel Baptist Church. Find out more at: http://www.ronedmondson.com/about)
David was an individual who loved God with His whole heart – He failed at times – He was not perfect – He fell into sin but in the end he returned to God.
Last week we explored 3 Hebrew words used in Psalms which describe different dimensions to praising the Lord – even in hardship!
a. Towdah” - Hebrew means an extension of our hands toward God.
b. Yadah” - Hebrew means to use or hold out the hand in reverence to God through a public time of praise and worship.
c. “Halal” - Hebrew means to shine, to boast and rave about God.
When we praise the Lord we seek to give Him glory and honor and to connect with His presence. Praise that attracts Gods presence must be done in spirit and truth. This means with sincerity of heart, with a passion for the Lord, with purity of motives and a humility before God. This pattern is seen in the 7 Hebrew words describing praise and worship to God.
T.S. – Let’s look at the other 4 Hebrew words Psalms uses to describe praise to the Lord.
Sermon Find Joy in the Journey through praise pt. 3!
Thesis: Gods greatest desire is that we – you and I - would act like Him and live with Him. God placed His nature in us and as a believer His presence lives in us (Gen 2:8). He desires to interact with us through praise which encompasses prayer and worship as well. We can discover with the help of the Lord joy in the journey of life – even when we face illness, death, persecution, trials and hardship.
Introduction:
Another Story Chinese Christians in China and the power of praise and its connection to joy! From Insanity of God!
David Chen had told me that this particular house-church movement was one of biggest and most diverse in the entire country. Many of its congregations and their leaders, like those who rode in the van with me, were urban, educated and comparatively sophisticated in the modern ways of the world—or at least in the modern ways of China. At the same time, a significant percentage of this regional movement had sprung up and spread among people in places so provincial and so remote that much of the twentieth century had passed them by. Some of the church leaders from the most rural areas had little knowledge of the outside world. In light of what David had told me, I was somewhat prepared for the curious stares during supper that night. But I was profoundly surprised after supper when I was formally introduced to the group. One of the local pastors raised his hand to ask a question. What he wanted to know was this: “Do the people in other countries also know about Jesus—or is He still known only in China?” I had never been asked that question before—or even considered that point of view. For several long seconds I gathered my thoughts, trying to figure out where exactly to begin my answer. Then, with David interpreting for me, I told the group that millions of Americans and even more people in different countries around the world knew about and followed Jesus. I then told the group that believers in other parts of the world also knew about them—the Chinese believers in house churches. I told them that believers in many parts of the world prayed for them and their churches. “Wait, wait!” people cried out. They could hardly believe what I was saying. One man responded this way: “Do you mean that people in your country know that we believe in Jesus? Do you mean that they know that some of us are suffering for our faith? Do you mean that they haven’t forgotten us and that they pray for us?” I assured them: “Why yes, we have always loved you. And we have never forgotten you. For a long time, we have prayed for you.” It was a holy moment as these believers realized that they were recognized, remembered and prayed for by fellow believers around the world. One of the younger women in the group asked, “Since Jesus is known in other countries, are the believers there persecuted like we are?” I told them about the experience of believers in two very oppressive Islamic counties. The entire gathering of house-church leaders in the farmyard became strangely still. Just minutes before, they had been clapping and shouting and asking questions. Now they were completely silent and still. They sat expressionless. I attempted to enliven the group by sharing about Muslim-background believers we were close to—people who had exhibited inspiring faith under the most oppressive circumstances. But there was still no movement and no questions. When I had told a number of such stories, I felt half-dead myself. I lowered my voice and I said to David, “That’s it. I’m done. I’m drained. I have nothing more to say tonight!” I stepped off the little stage in the middle of the compound and headed for the room where I was to sleep. At 6:00 the next morning I was awakened by screaming and shouting outside in the compound. My first thought was that the security police had come. As my eyes adjusted to the daylight, I saw that there were no security police swarming into the compound. What I saw were those Chinese house-church leaders and evangelists scattered around the farmyard, either lying or sitting on the ground, crying, screaming and yelling hysterically (or so it seemed to me). Many of them were pulling their hair or clutching at their clothes. I spotted my friend David across the way and I rushed over to him. I demanded to know: “What in the world is going on?” He told me to be quiet and to listen. “You know that I don’t know a word of Chinese,” I told him. “What do you mean ‘just listen’”? Again he insisted, “Just be quiet, Nik!” Before I could protest again, he took me by the arm and began to walk me among these people who were crying and screaming. Because I was now silent, I actually began to hear and recognize the names of the two Muslim countries that I had told them about the night before. The names of those two countries were being repeated again and again in passionate and anguished prayer. When David stopped and turned to look at me, there were tears streaming down his face. He said, “They were so moved by what you shared last night about believers who were truly persecuted, that they have vowed before God that they will get up an hour earlier every morning to pray for those Muslim-background believers that you told them about in ______________ and ____________ (and he named the two nations*) until Jesus is known throughout their countries.” In that instant, I could see why the number of Chinese believers had gone from a few hundred thousand to perhaps hundreds of millions!
Ripken, Nik. The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Point to make about joy: From Nik’s observation of the persecuted church in China he discovered they had joy – they had joy even though severely persecuted and 40% of the pastors he talked to in China had been imprisoned for their faith at least 3 years. They had very little stuff, but they had joy, very little money but they had joy. He noted how they worshipped the Lord with their whole hearts in their secret churches – they cried out to God in pray with passion and fervor. They prayed for others and worshipped God as they prayed. These Chinese Christians had truly found Joy in the journey of life while being persecuted for their faith!
Question: Have you prayed for our Muslim and Hindu neighbors? Do you regularly pray for others going through hard times? Pray is a key here for finding joy in the journey – By the way a lot of the Psalms you read and sing are really prayers to God. Did you know that?
Scripture Texts;
Psalms 150:
1Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
2Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,
4praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,
5praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
6Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
Psalm 95:
1Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. 10For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
T.S. – Let’s continue to look at the importance of Davidic worship to find Joy in the journey today through praise and look at 4 more Hebrew words David and Psalms used to describe the power of praise and its connection to joy in the journey!
a. “Schaback”- to address God in a loud voice, particularly with a sense of triumph.
i. Praise, glory, glorify, commend, or extol
ii. Scripture Texts:
1. Ps. 145:4: One generation will commend your works to another they will tell of your mighty acts.
2. Ps. 117:1: Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
3. Ps. 106:47: Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.
Song during this time of “Shaback”:
b. “Zamar”- means to touch the strings or parts of musical instrument with the sense of playing it or making music that is accompanied by the voice.
i. Means to give praise, sing, make music, and offer psalms to God.
ii. It is an expression of our honor and love for what God has done for us and the musician or worship leader do not do this for us we do it for ourselves to God. We do it because we have a reason to celebrate.
1. ‘Zamar” has the association of praising God with instruments and through dance. Therefore musical instruments are a vital part of prayer, praise and worship and so is dance. Music is to be used to give thanks to the Lord by using a gift He has given us to make sweet sounds to His Spirit!
iii. Scripture Texts:
1. Ps.33:2-3: Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
2. Ps. 150: Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
Song to sing for Zamar!
c. “Barak” - it means to kneel down, bow down to God in worship. It is an act of adoration to God.
i. It carries with it a sense of expectancy from God that His presence is there in worship.
ii. It is a physical expression of worship and honor to God!
iii. It is translate’s to kneel, to bless, to fall to our knees in the midst of God’s presence.
1. John did this in Revelation when Jesus appeared to him and he fell to the ground as though he was dead.
a. Revelation 1:9-19:
i. 9I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.” 12I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
14His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. 17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
19“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.
1. Note Specifically verse 17 “When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead…”
b. In the Old Testament, one would drop to their knees before a king before they spoke and before they received a word or blessings from them.
i. This is what John did in our Scripture text.
2. Scripture Texts:
a. Ps. 41:13: Praise (Barak) be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
b. Ps.95:6: Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel (Barak) before the LORD our Maker.
Song to sing out to the Lord in a time of “Barak”:
d. “Tehillah” - it speaks of songs coming from the heart, songs resonating from the spirit within us, they were unpremeditated utterances inspired by the Holy Spirit.
i. This in Hebrew is considered the highest level of praise. It is praise reserved for God alone!
1. Your Spirit within you sings out in divine utterances to the Lord. It is spontaneous and flows from within you from the Spirit which is in you.
2. In these divine moments of prayer/praise and worship God manifests His divine power through His kingdom and things happen.
a. See Matthew 6:9-13: 9“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.11Give us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation.”
b. God is the one with the power and He is the one that has established the kingdom on this earth. We are responsible to welcome Him in this world with divine utterances of prayer and praise. He then responds with His presence in prayer/ praise and worship. There are times it should be spontaneous!
3. Scripture Texts:
a. Isa. 42:8: “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”
b. Ps. 22:3: “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.”
c. Ps. 100 1-5: “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know (yadah) that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving (towdah) and his courts with praise (tehillah); give thanks (yadah) to him and praise (barak) his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
2 Songs to sing for Tehillah!
Conclusion:
Old Testament prophecies in Isa 16:5; Amos 9:11-12 specifically mention that in the last days this type of Davidic worship would reemerge at Jesus Second Coming. We are experiencing this move of the Spirit today through places like IHOP and Bethel.
I. Isaiah 16:5: In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it—one from the house of David—one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.
II. Amos 9:11-12: 11“In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, 12so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name, “declares the LORD, who will do these things.
III. In Acts 15:16-17 this Davidic worship was fulfilled and set in motion by the church of Jesus Christ.
IV. Acts 15:16-17: 15The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16“‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’
There is not a strict order here of how to pray, or praise or how to worship God. But it is important to note that we should first approach Him in prayer and praise with a heart of thanksgiving. Then we seek His blessings and favor for certain situations in our lives. We pray for joy and perseverance in the trials and storms of life. We can do it with words but also in song or praise to Him.
God wants us to interact with Him through praise-prayer and worship and yes it can be all wrapped together. It's the Davidic style of worship that God loves to bless and what He uses to bring the power of His restoration to our burdened hearts and lives. When we seek after Davidic praise we will find God’s presence and in the presence comes Joy!
What we need to know and do!
• We need to experience the Spirit of the Lord in praise which includes prayer and worship.
• We need to invite Him to come into these times of hardship in our lives with praise and worship.
• We need to do it both individually and corporately so we are strengthened with His presence.
• When we experience His presence through the dimensions of Davidic worship spoken about in Psalms our lives will be renewed and we will find joy.
